


The First Worst Day

by KorrinBelle



Series: Domesticia [24]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Childhood, Family Drama, Family Feels, M/M, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-07-29 15:31:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7690012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KorrinBelle/pseuds/KorrinBelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They always knew that raising a child wouldn't be easy. They always knew that one day they'd have to tell her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a reminder (because I know the setup of this story and the way AO3 links series' can confuse new readers) but this story is set in a pre-existing on-going AU. If you don't read the preceding chapters, please understand that Lily is Shiemi and Ryuuji's biological child via artificial insemination, while she is raised as Rin and Ryuuji's child.  
> The entire conflict in this story kind of hinges on understanding that dynamic. -w-b

            Shiemi was wearing a calm quiet smile, enjoying the sun as she waited patiently outside the school. The bell rang and students started pouring out of the building, fleeing the tedium of school in favor of freedom, but she knew something was wrong the moment she picked Lily out of the crowd.

            She had only picked her up from school a handful of times so far, but Lily had been bright and cheerful every time, eager to tell Aunty Shiemi about her day at school. Today however, Lily walked with her head down and her shoulder slumped, clutching at the straps of her backpack like she was carrying the weight of the world inside of it.

            “Lily-chan?”

            The girl flinched, looking up at Shiemi like she hadn’t even noticed who had come to pick her up, but after the initial surprise passed Lily sighed, her shoulders relaxing ever so slightly as she threw her arms around Shiemi in a tight hug, pressing her face against her side.

            “Lily, Sweety, what’s the matter?” Shiemi knelt down so she could talk to Lily, face-to-face, as soon as the little girl released her from the hug.

            Lily frowned, her lips pursed tightly as she looked down at her feet.

            “I’m not a liar,” she said softly, her voice quavering.

            Shiemi blinked.

            “O-Of course you’re not, Sweetheart,” Shiemi said as she took Lily’s hand, “Did someone say you were?”

            Lily just shook her head, clinging to Shiemi’s hand silently. Shiemi didn’t want to pressure her if she didn’t want to talk, so they simply started walking home—home in this case being Shiemi’s house.

            “Are my dads at work?” Lily asked, and Shiemi nodded.

            “They’ll be home in an hour or two.”

            Lily thought about this for a moment, her lips pursed.

            “Is Uncle Yukio at your house?”

            “No, he’s at work too.”

            “Good.”

            “Lily! That’s not very nice.”

            “But he doesn’t like me,” Lily protested.

            “That’s not true. He just… That’s just how he is with everyone,” Shiemi said softly. She couldn’t argue. She’d seen the distance Yukio tried to put between himself and Lily. He’d gotten better about distancing himself from people over the years, but it had resurfaced the moment he heard Shiemi was going to carry Rin and Ryuuji’s child. She’d chalked it up to awkward jealousy, but Yukio’s relationship with both Rin and Lily remained strained. She thought things would get better when he asked her out, but… If even a child could notice, it was probably about time she had a talk with him about it. Lily and Rin were both important parts of her life. They were a package deal he’d have to get used to, and it wasn’t something he should have held against any of them.

            “So, did you do anything fun today?” she asked as they walked, trying both to change the subject as well as engage Lily mentally and attempt to cheer her up.

            “I played tagged during recess.”

            Shiemi giggled. “That does sound fun, but what about during class?”

            Lily thought about it for a moment and then said, “Sachiko Sensei read us a book about animals and their babies.”

            “Oh! That sounds very cute. What kind of animals were in the book?”

            “All kinds!” Lily said, spreading her arms out dramatically. “Giraffes, and wolfs, and pandas, and oh- oran- Oranitans!”

            “Orangutans?” Shiemi correctly softly.

            “Yeah!” Lily shouted, “Oran- Oranitans!”

            “And which animals was your favorite?” Shiemi asked.

            “Possums,” Lily said without skipping a beat, and Shiemi sputtered, covering her mouth before she could laugh.

            “Why possums?”

            “Because they’re cute, and they carry their babies around with them, and they have long tails they can grab stuff with like… like...” she trailed off, her previous enthusiasm draining out of her. A single sniffle was Shiemi’s only warning as Lily started to quietly sob, her tiny shoulders shaking.

            “L-Lily, Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” Shiemi asked, stopping to kneel in front of Lily and take her in to her arms. The little girl continued to cry, showing no signs of stopping, so Shiemi scooped her up, gently patting her back and letting her cry against her shoulder as she carried her the rest of the way home.

            By the time they arrived at Shiemi’s family shop Lily had pretty much cried herself out. She hiccupped occasionally, sniffing back fresh tears, but it didn’t seem like Shiemi had to expect a repeat performance. Not for a while at least.

            She set Lily down and dried her tears, wiping her face clean of salt and snotty noses before sending her in to the garden to play while Shiemi prepared her after school snack. She couldn’t suppress a smile as Lily grimaced—she was not fond of Shiemi’s cooking—because it meant for the time being at least, Lily was back to normal. Perhaps she was simply distracted, but that gave Shiemi time to get to the bottom of things.

            There was a really easy way to accomplish that too, if Shiemi was lucky. Lily and her classmates all had a journal they wrote in daily on various topics, writing simple little stories or drawing pictures about their day to day lives in which their teacher would often leave notes marking the progress or problems they faced, in and outside of the classroom. Shiemi retrieved Lily’s backpack and took it to the kitchen table before removing Lily’s journal, and there, on the latest page was a crayon drawing of Lily with Rin and Ryuuji.

            Beneath the drawing, in shaky crayon lettering, it read:

_My dad is really big.  
            My daddy has a tail._

            Attached to the page was a sticky note with neat handwriting which read “Lily might need some help distinguishing reality from fiction.”

            Shiemi glanced out her kitchen window to where Lily knelt, digging happily in the dirt of a flowerbed with a child’s plastic pail and shovel. A large greenman spirit stood nearby protectively, watching her play like a silent guardian. Shiemi’s garden was crawling with them—her little helpers, on and off the battlefield—but Lily was oblivious to their presence. Rin and Ryuuji had very carefully seen to the fact that Lily had never received a mashou.

            Shiemi bit her lip as she watched the little girl play. Lily’s comment about not being a liar suddenly made sense. She might not have been able to see the greenmen or other spirits or demons, but she could still see Rin’s tail and strange things happened around her with what was probably an alarming frequency.

            Quietly, Shiemi went to the fridge and began to prepare Lily’s snack. She might have been Lily’s birth mother, but Rin and Ryuuji were her _parents_. That was a conversation for them to have with her. In the meantime she could make sure Lily was happy and healthy, and then pass along what she’d learned.

            It was going to be a hard enough conversation no matter what Lily’s mood was.


	2. Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowing that Lily had a less than stellar day, Rin tries to get to the source of the problem. It's not quite what he expected, but it's also, perhaps, a lot worse.

            Shiemi had already briefed Rin when he walked by the bathroom door and had to do a double take, shaking his head to make sure he wasn’t imagining things.

            Lily was standing on a step stool in front of the vanity, leaning over the sink and staring at herself in the mirror, twisting her head every which way and making all sorts of intense faces, as if searching for something that wasn’t there.

            “What’chya doin’?” Rin asked softly as he leaned against the doorframe, not wanting to embarrass or startle her.

            She heaved a long suffering sigh and looked up at him with a concerned expression. “You know how people say babies got their parents’ eyes and noses? I’ve got Dad’s hair, but…” she trailed off, staring in to the mirror once more and missing Rin’s amused snort.

            Lily had dirty blonde hair, something she’d obviously gotten from her mother, and she had no idea that even in his thirties, Ryuuji took meticulous care of his hair, booking salon appointments at the first sign of his roots peeking out under the bleach. Rin honestly didn’t know how he hadn’t gone bald like his old man.

            “Do you think I’ve got your nose?” Lily asked.

            Rin fell back on humor, the same way he always did when he felt that people around him needed cheering up or distracting. He feigned confusion and touched his face. “No,” he said, “I’ve still got it.”

            Lily pursed her lips and glared at him through the mirror’s reflection. Dang. That would have worked when she was younger, sending her in to a fit of laughter and distracting her from the topic. No such luck now.

            “I hear you didn’t have a great day at school,” Rin said, placing his hand on her head.

            “Daddy, when is my tail gonna’ grow in?”

            He snorted back laughter and Lily glared at him.

            “Sorry, Stringbean, but I don’t think you’re gonna get a tail,” he said as he ruffled her hair. She swatted his hands away and he was expecting another glare, but his eyes widened as Lily looked up at him in the mirror and furrowed her brow, her eyes wet with the tears she was valiantly holding back. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she spoke first.

            “We talked about families at school today,” she said wiping away tears, hanging her head and staring down in to the sink instead of meeting the eyes of his reflection

            “Oh yeah? I saw your drawing,” Rin said, trying to sound casual as he bent down to wrap his arms around her, resting his chin on her head and holding her close, “Looked pretty good.”

            “Kiko-chan said I can’t have two dads.”

            Rin froze, and Lily turned in his arms to look up at him, the look on her face heartbreaking.

            “Sachiko Sensei said she was right.”

            “Oh,” Rin said, suddenly really wishing Ryuuji was there. “Well, I’m sure she didn’t mean it like that. I mean… I guess technically they’re correct,” Rin said with a shrug, “You know where babies come from. Biologically you can’t have two dads, but I’ve told you about Grandpa Shiro before, right?” He waited for Lily to nod and then continued, his voice wistful. “He wasn’t biologically my dad either, but he was still my dad in all the ways that matter the most. He read to me and taught me how to tie a tie, and how to be a good person. He encouraged me to pursue my hobbies and didn’t give up on me, even when I’d given up on myself. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t my real dad. He was still _my_ _dad_ , you know what I mean?”

            Lily nodded and looked up at him. “So… I am adopted…?”

            Rin face palmed, scrubbing his hand up through his hair. “No, you’re not adopted, but… It’s a little complicated. We should probably wait until Dad gets home before we talk about that, okay?”

            “Okay.” She nodded, lips pursed as she went back to studying their reflections.

            “You’re our daughter and we both love you very much,” Rin said and he planted a kiss on the top of her head and gave her a quick squeeze of a hug. “And family is a lot more than just moms and dads, you know. They come in all shapes and sizes.”

            Lily stopped crying, sniffing back her tears, but she hung her head dejectedly, staring down in to the sink. Rin pursed his lips as he studied her face in the mirror, trying to think of something more to say when Lily’s tiny shoulders heaved with a dramatic sigh.

            “But I’m not getting a tail.”

            Rin barked out a laugh and Lily glared at him in the mirror again, letting out an annoyed grunt as he ruffled her hair affectionately.

            “Sorry, Pumpkin. No tails.”

            She puffed out her cheeks in an exaggerated pout and leaned over the sink towards the mirror, kicking her legs as she supported her weight on the vanity.

            “What do I have then?” she asked.

            “From me, you mean?”

            Lily hummed in affirmation and Rin frowned, trying to think of what he could say that wouldn’t count as perpetuating a lie. He’d always assumed they’d tell her when the time felt right, but he’d also assumed Ryuuji would be there for it too.

            He placed his hand on Lily’s head, running his fingers over her fine blonde hair.

            “You know, your dad actually bleaches his hair, right? You can’t have two colored hair naturally.”

            Lily nodded, and then turned to look up at Rin, her brow furrowed as she realized what he was saying.

            “I don’t have Dad’s hair?” she asked. Rin shook his head.

            “You have your mom’s hair.”

            Lily looked up at him in surprise, her eyes wide.

            “I have a mom?”

            Her voice was caught somewhere between wistful and disbelieving, as if it was too much to hope for. A small smile spread over her face as she looked up at him, and Rin’s heart broke. He smiled down at her.

            “Yup. And you have your dad’s beautiful brown eyes.”

            Her eyes sparkled and she smiled brightly, waiting eagerly for more, for the next part. Rin wanted to look away, afraid to disappoint her, but he didn’t. He just kept on smiling and comprehension sparked momentarily in her eyes before her expression fell, her brow creasing. Rin took her in to his arms and held her close, tucking her head under his chin so she wouldn’t see him starting to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter of Domesticia is brought to you by VineTabris, [Jaiden](http://jaidenwriteswords.tumblr.com), Senem, and Angerawr. Thank you so much for your support. (´∀｀人)  
> 


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